Macron formed liner as a practical method for enabling magneto-inertial fusion

Summary form only given: To take advantage of the smaller scale, higher density regime of MIF an efficient method for achieving the compressional heating required to reach fusion gain conditions must be found. The method needs to be simple and capable of repetitive operation. The macroparticle (macron) formed liner compression of the Field Reversed Configuration is such a method. The approach to be described here employs an assemblage of small macro-particles (macrons) to form a more massive liner that radially compresses and heats the FRC plasmoid to fusion conditions. With the momentum flux being delivered by an array low mass, but high velocity macrons, many of the difficulties encountered with the implosion power technology are eliminated, and uniquely addresses the major challenges facing magneto-inertial fusion. Namely: (1) It embodies a compression scheme that can very efficiently and repetitively generate the kinetic liner energy required to reach fusion gain; (2) it provides for both the target plasma and liner energy to be generated remote from the reactor vessel. This is critical as the reactor environment is likely to be incompatible with the specialized pulse power equipment employed in conventional liner approaches; and (3) the timescale for forming and accelerating both the FRC and liner can be much longer than the time that the energy is thermalized in the implosion. This avoids the need for the very high voltages required to produce multi-megampere compression currents. In fact the switching requirement for the macron formed liner (MFL) is well within the range of currently available solid state devices. The timescale for testing and development as a fusion device can be rapidly accelerated by taking advantage of new research results at MSNW where the FRC plasmoid accelerator experiment has already demonstrated the dynamic formation of a FRC suitable for the target plasma for the macron liner fusion reactor.